It’s Supposed to Be Fun

I took a break from fic because people were being evil assholes. It wasn’t just fandom antis; there was a whole slew of negativity coming from various sources. I was in a dark place for most of 2018, and Tumblr didn’t help.

But, after unfollowing or flat-out blocking all of the people who were bothering me, I started to have more energy to give to people who are actually nice. I’m not where I was back in 2016 quite yet, but I’m recovering. I get so much energy from the tiniest amount of positive feedback that even one kind comment on AO3 can inspire me to embark on a new project, and even one fandom friend on Twitter sending me a message saying “You should totally do that!” can encourage me to write an entire novel.

I’m done with trying to be all ~love and appreciation~ all the time, but it would be a good thing if I could give just a small bit of energy back to the fandom community. For the time being, though, it helps not to waste my time and emotional resources on people who aren’t supportive.

I know that “block the mean people and do what makes you happy” sounds like an obvious conclusion, but it took me more than a year to arrive here. It’s been a long journey, but I think I’m finally in a better place.

The Three False Equivalencies of Anti-Fandom

(1) The False Equivalency of Representation

Even if a fanfic has hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of kudos, it is never going to achieve the same level of cultural impact as big-budget mainstream media. No matter how much wholesome fic you write about Finn, it is not going to be the same as John Boyega’s face on every movie screen everywhere in the world.

(2) The False Equivalency of “They’re Just Fictional Characters”

Because “positive representation” isn’t really a valid concern with fanwork (although, in a collective sense, it absolutely can be, but that’s a different conversation), it doesn’t matter whether your fic or art is about Naruto kissing Sakura or Naruto kissing Sasuke. In fact, those three names are probably nothing more than nonsense words to 99.999% of people on this earth. It also doesn’t matter if you, as some rando on the internet, get off (for whatever reason) on the idea of Sasuke forcing himself on Naruto, Sakura, or both at the same time. They’re just fictional characters, and it does not matter to the broader culture. What does matter is if systemic structures of inequality and discrimination are uncritically reproduced in the fictional texts embraced by fandom without commentary. It’s therefore a false equivalency to put “I don’t like this m/m ship” on the same level of critique as “I don’t like how the source text marginalizes female characters.”

(3) The False Equivalency of GO OUTSIDE

Saying “I don’t like a particular m/m ship” is not only fine, it’s par for the course in fandom. Saying “I don’t like how the source text marginalizes female characters” is also fine, and we could probably use more of that sort of thing in fandom, to be honest. Someone writing about the details of their disappointment regarding a work of fiction is also fine. It’s okay to not like things! What is not okay is sending death and rape threats, accusing people of pedophilia, finding someone’s personal information and threatening to contact their family or employer, and doing things like creating a [username]gokillyourself account on AO3 in order to leave comments containing concrete instructions on how to commit suicide. It is a very clear false equivalency to suggest that expressing a negative opinion about a fictional character is “just as bad” as harassing an actual human being.